'What else can I do?': Father who sued council over £600million in lost bitcoin tells LBC court battle was 'leverage'

10 January 2025, 20:14 | Updated: 10 January 2025, 21:00

A man who took his local council to court after losing £635million in bitcoin has told LBC his case was just "leverage" to draw the council into "negotiating".

A judge dismissed James Howells last-ditch bid on Thursday after he attempted to sue a council in order to retrieve a Bitcoin hard drive from the local rubbish tip - which he claims is now worth over £600 million.

James Howells argued his ex-partner accidentally threw away the hard drive containing a Bitcoin wallet in 2013, and he sought permission to access the landfill to recover the extremely valuable cryptocurrency.

At one point, the father-of-three even offered a share the recovered Bitcoin with Newport City Council if the hard drive was successfully found.

Speaking with LBC, he Mr Howells said he wanted to "use the case as leverage" to bring Newport council "to the negotiating table".

"That's all it was ever really wanted with them - a genuine sit down, good faith conversation with the leaders of Newport Council to discuss the possibility of this project going ahead.

"And I never even got that, to be honest."

Describing the outcome of the case, he told Tom Swarbrick: "I've been left with pretty much absolutely nothing".

"What else can I do? I mean, apart from knocking on the front gates of Buckingham palace and asking the King to make the special decree. What else, what else can I do?"

He admitted that he was happy that despite the council winning on all counts, the judge acknowledged the cryptocurrency belonged to him.

His aim was to "insert a clause into the final ruling which stated although Newport council are the owner of the hard drive and James doesn't have rights to retrieve it, he is still the owner of the 8,000 bitcoins.

"That would have given me same legal backing in order to launch a new crypto currency or using the 8,000 coins" to "create new assets".

However, the council requested a High Court judge strike out Mr. Howells' legal action, which aimed either to access the site or instead to receive £495 million in compensation.

Judge Keyser KC ruled there were no "reasonable grounds" for the claim and that there was "no realistic prospect" of success if the case went to trial.

During the December hearing, the court was informed Mr. Howells had been an early adopter of Bitcoin and had successfully mined the cryptocurrency.

As the value of his missing digital wallet increased, Mr. Howells assembled a team of experts to try to locate, recover, and access the hard drive.

He had repeatedly requested permission from the council to access the landfill and had even offered a share of the recovered Bitcoin if the hard drive was successfully found.

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Mr. Howells mined the Bitcoin back in 2009 for a negligible cost and says he completely forgot about it when he discarded the hard drive.

With Bitcoin's value rising more than 80% in 2024, Mr. Howells now estimates his 8,000 bitcoins are worth over £600 million.

However, James Goudie KC, representing the council, argued that the hard drive became the council's property as soon as it entered the landfill site under existing laws.

He also pointed out that the council’s environmental permits would prohibit any excavation to search for the hard drive.

Mr. Goudie argued that the offer to donate 10% of the Bitcoin to the local community was encouraging the council to "play fast and loose," essentially "signing up for a share of the action."

In his written judgment, the judge stated: "I also find that the claim has no realistic prospect of success if it went to trial and that there is no other compelling reason to proceed with the case."

The landfill contains over 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but Mr. Howells claimed he had pinpointed the location of the hard drive to an area with around 100,000 tonnes of waste.

Mr. Howells has speculated that the Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth £1 billion by next year.

Speaking to BBC Wales outside the court in Cardiff last December, Mr. Howells expressed confidence in his case and said he was prepared to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.